Do You Download Your Comics?

On a Newsarama thread, oanswat asked, "Is downloading comics online cool, or is it wrong, and where do you get your downloaded comics from?"

I don't think it's wrong. I also think that comic book creators need that money.

How can I believe both? The problem is that supply is built off of demand, and readers are demanding a less expensive, digital way to receive their comics. But there is no supply system for digital material from the comic book publishers.

Evolve or die. Just like Napster, people will get their media how they want it whether the company provides it to them or not. The comic book publishers are not blind and easily could have seen this coming. But so far, they have barely compensated. The only product that I know of are the large digital back catalogs of Marvel books that sell on DVD. And they sell very well.

I do think that comic creators deserve compensation if you read their books. But I also feel that the companies have simply not acted upon a demand from consumers. Just like iTunes and other quality music download sites have made it nearly impossible for me to get good songs off of Limewire nowadays, comic book publishers could provide excellent product at a fair price to stave off the thousands of people downloading their comics by bittorent every week.

But until then, people will get their comics how they want them.

(Personally, I don't download my weekly comics. But sometimes if I can't get a hold of a book, or if a collection is just too expensive or too rare, I will try to find a digital file online.)